Part Four of a nine-part lecture on the humanist phenomenon by Center for Inquiry founder Paul Kurtz. In 1997, Dr. Kurtz taught a course entitled “The History and Philosophy of Humanism” before an audience of adult learners at the Center for Inquiry / Transnational in Amherst, New York. It was the principal course offering in that year’s Center for Inquiry Institute. In this presentation, the man sometimes called “the founder of secular humanism” traces the history and philosophy of the entire humanist movement, from the ancient Greeks to Renaissance humanism, humanism in the arts, and today’s humanist movement which fuses freedom from religion with the quest for objectively effective moral values.

Paul Kurtz is founder and chair emeritus of the Center for Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is professor of philosophy emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Editor-in-Chief of Free Inquiry magazine. He is the author of essential books in the field including Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism, Living without Religion: Eupraxsophy, The Courage to Become, The Transcendental Temptation, and many others.